Accepting a boat-load of Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers would open the flood gates to “millions of others” and rewards the “bad people, the Prime Minister of New Zealand John Key said.
A boat carrying 87 Tamil asylum seekers was detained on Saturday by the Indonesian Navy as they apparently tried to make their way to New Zealand. Many onboard were photographed holding signs saying they wanted to go to New Zealand.
The New Zealand Prime Minister said his country was not an inhumane country because the Government accepted 750 refugees every year from the United Nation’s refugee agency, the UNHCR, which identified “legitimate” refugees, New Zealand media reported.
“Once you start taking people in the form of people smugglers, you are rewarding the bad guys,” he told TV3’s Firstline programme.
“You are rewarding people who are putting others lives at risk.”
There was no guarantee the Sri Lankans were actually refugees, he said.
People smugglers were now acquiring large boats which were capable of making the journey to New Zealand, Key said.
“There are literally millions of people in this category. It’s not a simple thing to just say ‘let’s take this boat in and be good citizens’.
“If you are going to take this boat, there are just thousands and thousands of other boats which will come.”
The Government would not consider increasing its refugee quota, he said.
New Zealand’s Immigration Minister Jonathon Coleman said New Zealand was one of a “very few countries” that played its part in taking refugees.
“We’ve got a very good reputation internationally in that regard.”
There was no legal obligation to take every person who sought asylum in New Zealand but each applicant was considered on a case-by-case basis.
“There is a process that is gone through to sort out the genuine cases from the non-genuine cases.”
In 2010, UNHCR said Sri Lankans from North are no longer in need of international protection under broader refugee criteria or complementary forms of protection solely on the basis of risk of indiscriminate harm.
The UN Refugee Agency releasing a report titled ‘Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Asylum-Seekers from Sri Lanka’, further said that human rights and security situation in Sri Lanka has improved.
‘In light of the improved human rights and security situation in Sri Lanka, there is no longer a need for group-based protection mechanisms or for a presumption of eligibility for Sri Lankans of Tamil ethnicity originating from the north of the country’, UNHCR report states.
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